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Mini Feature: Mike’s RWD WRX

By
DaveT
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3

Today’s mini feature is a Subaru which, like the last one featured here, is sure to push a few buttons among the more ‘purist’ minded automotive enthusiasts.

This car was brought to my attention by the owner/operator of WeLoveThis.ca, Graeme Harvey, Graeme and the crew over at We Love This (who are good friends with the boys at Union) are all about celebrating anything and everything dope; and today’s car just happens to fit the bill.

Mike treating his pride and joy to a coin wash

Mike Ross’s Bug Eye started out the same as every other Rally Blue rex: stock, and awd. While this starting point is enough for a lot of people Mike wouldn’t be happy until his car was transformed into something that couldn’t be picked up off the local car lot.

After a short stint as a daily driver, the car transitioned to a road course terror for a season, before going in a direction that is foreign to most Subaru’s, rear wheel drive.

Mikes WRX looking like a predator in the night

After removing his front drive axles and modifying his center differential Mike installed a set of Megan track coil-overs and a custom powder coated Cusco multi-link setup.

With his sights set on getting the most out of his new suspension Mike took his car to Scott at Can-align for proper corner balancing before installing his 17×10 +25 Miro STP1’s (with 225/45 Yokohama tires).

Functional stance here

Under the winning blue hood Mikes motor lives in partially shaved the engine bay and once the unnecessary bits where gone under the  hood the shaving  spread through the rest of the vehicle until a total 250lbs of excesses was removed from the cars over all weight.

When riding in Mikes car you would hardly notice where the weight was subtracted (hint: custom aluminum bumper beams) as save from the air conditioning, no real passenger comfort has been sacrificed.

The 10inch wide wheels really suit the factory wrx fenders

This car has come a long way since Mike got it but the end is no where near in sight, he and the Union Auto Club have a number of tricks left up their sleeves for this already great looking and performing car.

The parking garage will never cease to be an amazing spot for photos

Photo credit: JP Ellis

Big thanks to Graeme (tips and info) and JP Ellis (flicks) at WeLoveThis.ca for helping me out with this feature, and finally a big thanks to Mike for letting me feature his ride.

Expect a few more WeLoveThis.ca/stanceiseverything.com collaborations to come in the future!

Event Coverage: 2010 Gumball 3000 Toronto

By
DaveT
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13

I could have called this ‘Event Coverage: Rich People Envy‘ because after I left Yorkville, where the Gumball cars cruised to in Toronto, I was fairly jealous of what all of the Gumball participants get to do.

Driving from city to city in a ‘rally’ and stopping off at local tracks and party hot spots and having enough money have to care about things going wrong is every automotive enthusiasts dream.

Gumball is something that I will most likely never be able to participate in, but I was glad to be able to spectate a little bit of, even though Tony Hawk and Rooftop in the A Team van and the Hoff in KITT were no shows, oh and the Bugatti Veyron went straight to the Hyatt hotel.

Outside my work

Since this all went down walking distance from my work I just stayed downtown and went to the bar before hand (gf was DD) then we cruised over to Yorkville to see whats up.

Seeing the cars outside my work was pretty awesome because I could get some close shots.

This clean, local, ae86 wasn't in the Gumball but was rolling with them
The gumball medic, I found it hilarious he had to cover so much for people to not think it was a real ambulance
The only local Gumball entrant I saw, Zookie throwin up dueces
He's a Transformers fan!
Ferrari's on bloor, 3rd building back from the no u turn sign is my office

Roll in

We didn’t stay near the roll in too long just because it was really hard to get pictures with everyone leaning in so far to do the same

This is Gumball, livin it up
The story goes this guys original car broke down so he bought this Camaro to finish the rally
I've never seen so many Gallardos in my life
Drop top
Lots and lots of vinyl wraps
F430 rollin in

Stopped shots

Eventually we got sick of crappy drive in shots and decided to walk around so here are those pics organized by brand

Misc

The safest limo you will ever be in
This Skyline almost seemed mundane compared to all the exotics, almost
UK guys help me out what model Renault is this?
Immaculate 72 Dino, awesome.
Conquest Vehicles Knight XV 400 hp of get out of the way
This thing was massive
Maximillion Coopers Morgan Aero Max
With a cardboard window
This truck was crazy, so crazy people brought models for it...

BMW’s

Not in the gumball just a local York Villian
I heard a few people wondering why someone would take a wagon, they didn't notice it was an m5 I guess?

Maserati’s

Money.
Mo Money!

Bentley’s

Not sure the green works on this B machine but I could see it working on something else
This car had gatork skin all over it, it was actually kinda neat
They also had photos of the stops they had been on the car, again unique touch

Porsche’s

I love Porsche bodylines
Mr X to the Z
Never saw the man himself

Lamborghini’s

I loved LP670LV and it's roof rack, murdered out is dead you say? Nah.
More vinyl wrapping
Lambo rear windows are useless anyway

WTF Friday: red lights are optional?

By
DaveT
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5

I saw a thread on jdmrides containing compilations of clips captured by red light cameras, prior to watching this video I didn’t really have any idea how ballsy some people are when it came to running reds.

Some people just gun it and pray while others are just oblivious and cruise on through. This footage will shock and amaze you…

A few of them are good for a chuckle where as others… well if you have a faint heart I apologize.

Site updates

I went to Gumball, and I will have my photos up tomorrow. I really really wish I was rich now, that’s about it.

Here is a quick mobile photo of car that was basically right outside my office.

Gumball Porsche GT3 on Bloor Street

Flashback Friday

I’m in a painted wheel mode today, maybe because I just watched a video on wheel refinishing so let’s toss it back to the painted wheel Theme Tuesday.

Keepin things Gumball here is a lambo with color matching lips

Volvo Memories

By
DaveT
-
10

Growing up my dad was a car guy, he used to take me to the Toronto International Auto Show, buy me remote control cars and got me hooked on building models.

For almost as far back as I can remember his 91 Volvo 940se was his pride and joy. This car was my first introduction to RWD luxury and my dads ‘family compromise’ so to speak. He loved this car and would often take me for spirited drives showing me the effects of over steer as we went. I often hoped this car would be mine but sadly this was not the case.

One tragic winters day my dad brought his car to his mechanics house for a head gasket replacement and while there the mechanics son took it out for a joy ride.

Unfortunately for my dad and his car this kid just had his G1 (learners permit) and had no idea how to handle a rear wheel drive car in the winter more so one with boost.

He ended up over cooking a turn, sliding into oncoming traffic, and striking another car.

Not only did that thief write off my dads car he also wrote off the car that he hit and put that driver out of work for about a year. The thief was perfectly fine (Volvo safety) but he was promptly sued by the driver of the other vehicle for lots and lots of damages.

While my dad was not physically injured by this incident having his pride and joy taken away from him basically shot a hole into the heart that once loved automobiles. Sure my dad will come out and wrench with me when I need a hand but he absolutely does not car about what he drives, his own cars have been tools to him ever since that incident.

I often wonder what he and I could have turned that Volvo into should it still be around, maybe it could have ended up looking something like this 740?

The stance on this brick is right proper
I don't know what it is about boxy cars but they just take well to dish

Guess we will never know, but if I win the lottery I know the first thing I am buying my dad.

Widebody Foxbody?

By
DaveT
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11

Don’t mind if I do.

Domestics can get love too, even more when they look this damn good.

Don't see too many foxes set up like this
Are those... CCWs?
Notice the different valance meaning there are at least two of these around

Noah is in the hood

By
DaveT
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4

Bad title I know, but moving past that, Noah at EKhatch is posting regularly again and has done something pretty interesting with his hood.

He’s brought it down to metal and thrown some WW2 era Rob Schwager graphics on it for this summer.

While a lot of people have done bare metal hoods and let them rust out, Noah is going a different route and doing his best to keep his hood from rusting so that it both pops out and blends in with his silver paint.

It looks pretty killer if you ask me.

It is awesome what can be achieved with some creativity and a spare hood
It's wrapped in vinyl here but he is going to clear coat it instead
Are you ready to take it to the next level Noah 😉 I think he had to spray this car with wd-40 weekly...

You can check out his progress with his hood here on Hatch Life

Theme Tuesdays: E36s

By
DaveT
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0

Not sure why it took me this long to do a Theme Tuesday dedicated to e36s but it did, so without further adieu here is something for the e36 lovers. Warning you will see lots and lots of style 5’s in this post, but that’s not a bad thing.

I also included a few local e36s in the mix.

Local Boys

Let’s start things off with a few of the local e36 guys who are doing things right

The Infamous Project e36
Beauty looking e36 I saw at the Bimmer experience in Mississauga
Buddy of contributing photographer Keven Soldo
This car started as a non M but was completely converted to M status, it was recently sold
The lips on this drop are crazy
Doogee is no stranger to this blog
Still for sale!
This owner of this car was cocky as hell and claimed the lowest e36 in Ontario for awhile...
He was shortly, more humbly dethroned by this gentleman

Out of towners

As usual cars from all over the great internet

Liftin
Don't always need an M bumper to look good, more people should rock BBS RCs
Red on gold will never get old
Green on green isn't bad either, really like this one
Waiting for these wheels to reappear on Seans ride
It's a damn shame that this car got destroyed, damn shame
F**in bomb
Tired of style 5s yet? No? Me either
This is rare, normally the white rims are dirtier than the car...
Jammed on M countours
Jon Sibal wad up

That’s it for now but ti fans don’t worry, I have started collecting pics for an e36ti Theme Tuesday all ready.

Level One doing big things

By
DaveT
-
0

Last week I posted a sick STI on Advans sharing lens space with an equally sick s2000 and the week before that I posted a flush s2000 on blue Volks which was the car that started the local s2000 onslaught.

Today I’ve got some more photos of the s2000 and STI, along with a TSX, 350z and the Civic SI you might have seen hiding in the original s2000 shoot.

All of these cars belong to a local group called Level One and are pushing Toronto local fitment/stance scene to, pardon the pun, new levels.

My fav car of the set, no point in denying it
I can almost hear the boxer burble
All this white and not the NextMod crew? What's going on?
Ti exhaust matches the color of the wheels pretty damn well
Don't see a lot of TSX's this well done around here
Low and clean
See the K. Saun sticker on the windshield? He didn't take these pics but is shooting again
Volks <3
Subarus are not the only vehicles that can rock blue and gold
A few people asked about this Civic so here's a better shot

Gawa shot these great photos and the rest of them can be found here.

Kick Game

By
DaveT
-
5

Maybe it’s just me but I have always thought these cars looked like shoes, not to say they are not capable of looking good or performing well (as this post proves), but they still look like shoes.

Maybe the perfect car for a sneaker aficionado?

Murdered out
The shoe profile is really evident here, nice dish though
LMs the be spinnin
Never seen this color before, pretty nice
I found a lot of pics of this one sitting on Work Meisters
More of the above with an e46 hanging around
Being M powered these coupes can move

WTF Friday: Man destroys CF hood because it won’t sell

By
DaveT
-
4

This is really weird, a member on JDMrides had a CF DA hood for sale that 11 people said they would but all flaked out for one reason or another. So instead of throwing it in a corner and waiting for a new buyer the seller got frustrated and filmed himself destroying the usable hood.

There is something to be said here about the western society and waste but that’s for more sophisticated blogs, here I just say WTF.

Hood before

Fitments a little funky but he could of sold it for something?
I'm surprised no one wanted this for $100, I guess CF is out...

Original Video – More videos at TinyPic

and part 2

Original Video – More videos at TinyPic

In completely un-related to automotive wtf but still pretty crazy is that it would appear as though hop flairs are taking off in BMX now…

Harry Main’s Hop Flair drop in

Craig Mast’s hop (bump jump) flair…

…and I still can’t flair 🙁

Site Updates

Got a feature in the works soon with a local lifestyle blog on a car that should start quite a few conversations so I am really looking forward to that.

The facebook fan like page is at 150 people (at posting this) with only 11 being my friends so thank you to everyone else who has signed up.

Eventually I plan to do some exclusive FB content there to make it a little bit more enjoyable.

Flashback Friday

This is the car that REALLY changed my view on stance and one of the first posts I ever made here…

This car was super clean and unbelivably slammed
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